Thank you for your statement, Minister. The 1000 Lives campaign has shown what is possible when we are united in the pursuit of a single aim—an aim of improving each patient’s experience of the care they receive. The enthusiasm and commitment of healthcare teams is highly admirable. Working together by following an evidence-based approach, they have continued to produce positive results and make significant improvements to patients’ experiences and safety. We must therefore acknowledge that, however hard we try, human error continues to be a fact of life. Therefore, we must continue to explore positive reforms to the management of our health service, and at all times prioritise patient care and safety.

First of all, we must recognise the scope of any issues and problems and make a clear commitment to change flawed systems that fail patients during their treatment and care. Improving each patient’s experience within our Welsh NHS requires everyone within it to work collaboratively with both the patient and their families. A vital component to improving the experiences of patients and staff is cohesion between health services and social care, and, where this fails, the consequences can be severe. An example that I have mentioned in this Chamber, but I feel it is important to raise, was the case of the 83-year-old gentleman from my region in South Wales West who underwent major surgery and subsequent treatment, and he experienced the flaws in the system and failed to benefit from collaborative care between health and social services. There simply was no plan when he was released from the hospital and no-one was told he was coming home from the hospital, and he’d had a triple heart bypass at 83 years of age.

So, does the Minister therefore agree with me that integration between these services must include streamlining the information patients are obliged to submit, thereby preventing a patient from having to give, as in this case, the same information to multiple agencies and professionals and in the end not achieving the result, improving the information sharing, which, in this case, didn’t happen, and ensuring health and social care services complement each other, establishing greater co-ordination between the two? Do you consider the role of local authorities in this instance to be positive? What experiences have you had when you’ve been negotiating, talking to, local authorities regarding these issues? One of the major challenges that faces the smooth transition from health services to social care is the delayed transfers of care. Since the middle of the last decade, we’ve witnessed rapid improvements in the number of people who experience delays. Indeed, the number has come down from 775 in the quarter ending in December 2004 to 472 in the quarter ending December last year. We all know workforce planning is vitally important, and each health board has stated that the cost of agency staff because of shortages is really eating into their budget and absorbs an awful lot of cost. So, this is a huge task, and I ask how you will address this issue, please.

Despite this considerable decrease in delayed transfers of care, it is noticeable that, since 2010, the number of delayed transfers of care has plateaued. I appreciate that there is always going to be a fluctuation in these figures. However, in 2013, there were 5,393 delayed transfers of care compared with nearly 6,000 in 2016. So, one of the main causes for these delays is the availability of beds, since the 2010 number of available beds has decreased by 15 per cent. At a time when Wales is experiencing increasing demands on the NHS service, the provision of beds is fundamental to reducing the number of delayed transfers of care. So, the 15 per cent reduction puts further strain on services and has an adverse effect on a patient’s experience. So, in particular, elderly people are suffering delays in their care, often left in hospital because there is no place for them to go—so, services, which in recent years have experienced cuts to their budget, exacerbating the problem further. Does the Minister agree with me that the Welsh Government must address the number of readily available beds to relieve pressure in Welsh hospitals and, furthermore, do everything within its power to prevent the closure of care homes across Wales?

Cuts to social services budgets have placed greater pressure on social care when patients are transferred from hospital. This is especially relevant to the elderly, many of whom experience a delay in their transfer and are reliant, therefore, on social services for the essential support that they receive. For example, Cardiff Council faces severe cuts to its budget over the next three years. The council has already made £200 million-worth of savings in the last 10 years. If further cuts—[Interruption.] If further cuts are to be made to council budgets such as Cardiff’s, then the capabilities of social services are going to be increasingly restricted, leaving many patients, both young and old, without essential care.

If social services are unable to keep up with the demand, then there is inevitably going to be a knock-on effect on the availability of beds in hospitals. So, this has a further effect on the transfer of care, causing greater obstacles to providing integrated care services.

As councils, not just here in Cardiff, but throughout the whole of Wales, face economically challenging times, will the Minister prioritise vital funding for the provision of social care for the elderly and the most vulnerable in our society, and consider the recommendations I gave earlier in my speech, ensuring that all in our health service benefit from collaborative health and social care? Thank you.